In our condo (100+ year-old building) we have hardwood floors throughout - fir with polyurethane - that we refinished 14 years ago, although they could stand another refinishing. We just got rid of our old disgusting kitchen floor (vinyl sheeting, 3 layers, with the original wood floor underneath, but unfortunately it wasn't refinishable - too much water damage).

So we had the old wood floor in the kitchen removed and they put in fir strip flooring, same as rest of the apartment. The goal is to stain (and then poly) the bare fir floor in the kitchen so as to match as much as possible the floor in the rest of the place - it's a small condo, so the entryway floor and the living room floor are adjacent to the kitchen.

Our floor guy, who I trust completely, is using a Carlisle finish, then following with a couple coats of poly - we'll see a sample in a few days. He says we'll never match completely the rest of the place because that wood is very old and has darkened naturally - there's no stain on it, just poly. But in 6 months to a year, he says the kitchen floor will darken to a point where it will closely resemble the rest of the floor in the apartment.

So I guess my question is, is "closely resemble" good enough so that it won't look weird? I was initially thinking of doing an entirely different kind of wood floor in the kitchen, but the majority opinion seems to be that it's best to continue with the rest of the wood in the house, both for aesthetics and for eventual resale.

Has anyone gone through this and have any experiences or opinions to share? Thanks!